RSNO Nicola Benedetti plays Simpson Usher Hall Edinburgh 22nd March 2024 Review
RSNO Nicola Benedetti plays Simpson at the Usher Hall this evening finally saw the Scottish premiere of this specially commissioned work (an RSNO co-commision). This work was originally scheduled for 2021, but was affected by Covid lockdown restrictions, and a second date was postponed due to injury. This then was third time lucky, and the wait was worth it all in the end for this special Nicola Benedetti performance of Mark Simpson’s Violin concerto.
Both Nicola Benedetti and Mark Simpson have won the BBC Young musician of the Year competition (2004 and 2006 respectively) so it is a nice connection here that one winner of this competition is writing music for another winner.
Despite being written for Nicola Benedetti to perform on violin, one of the most visually striking moment for me of this work was the sheer amount of percussion instruments that were lined up along the back of the orchestra just waiting to be played and, when they were, Mark Simpson’s use of every percussion instrument at his disposal created an RSNO soundscape of subtle colours and emotion at the start, moving to dynamic power during the first movement of this work.
Mark Simpson’s use of the orchestra, and in particular the technical and emotional skills of Nicola Benedetti on violin was full of surprises as we moved to the almost frantic energy just waiting to explode into dance and movement before changing mood, tone and pace and taking us all into a delicate love song where mixed emotions of light and dark intertwine. The last two movements of this work, again both very individual yet still telling a connected story as elements from the fourth movement revisit those of the second before the winds, strings and brass of the fifth and final movement move us from delicate harmonies to again pent up energy that is just waiting to be released.
It takes a special talent to bring a work like this to life and to capture all of the emotions and colours that it offers, and Nicola Benedetti is such a talent, musically both soaring above and when required interweaving with the RSNO orchestra but always captivating her audience tonight with what was a very special performance.
The Second half of tonight’s programme of music was devoted to another very special work, Dimitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No 5 (1937). For some reason I so often associate Shostakovich with pushing the boundaries of music and what his contemporary audiences would expect to hear from an orchestra, and although these elements are still here in parts, this is often in part a very to be expected Russian work of its period.
Shostakovich Symphony No 5 is always an enigma to me as although it is a work of amazing creativity, you always get the feeling that all is not what is pretends to be on the surface and that Shostakovich is playing with us, or to be more precise one person in particular when he composed it.
That one person in particular is Joseph Stalin, feared and ruthless dictator of the Russia and its people. Stalin had very narrow views on what he considered music, and in particular Russian music should sound like and when Stalin’s newspaper condemned the composer’s earlier opera “Lady Macbeth” as being a “muddle instead of music”, such displeasure from Stalin, and the personal consequences that could ensure from that, were clearly not wanted for a second time.
On the surface this work is in the best traditions of the great romantic Russian composers, but also it is full of the pomp and swaggering sounds of a pretentious military and those in power. Is Shostakovich making more than a few attacks on the established order in this work, but in doing so knowing that he is relatively safe as the interpretation of music is so personal and subjective.
Fortunately for us all today, we can listen to this work without the restrictions of political ideologies restraining us and see it for what it truly is, a remarkable work of beauty, passion and power that is constantly moving and changing throughout its long performance time (46 minutes approx.)
One unusual choice that Shostakovich makes here is the use of six double bass and when you hear them performed all in unison their combined sound is almost an elemental one.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Both Nicola Benedetti and Mark Simpson have won the BBC Young musician of the Year competition (2004 and 2006 respectively) so it is a nice connection here that one winner of this competition is writing music for another winner.
Despite being written for Nicola Benedetti to perform on violin, one of the most visually striking moment for me of this work was the sheer amount of percussion instruments that were lined up along the back of the orchestra just waiting to be played and, when they were, Mark Simpson’s use of every percussion instrument at his disposal created an RSNO soundscape of subtle colours and emotion at the start, moving to dynamic power during the first movement of this work.
Mark Simpson’s use of the orchestra, and in particular the technical and emotional skills of Nicola Benedetti on violin was full of surprises as we moved to the almost frantic energy just waiting to explode into dance and movement before changing mood, tone and pace and taking us all into a delicate love song where mixed emotions of light and dark intertwine. The last two movements of this work, again both very individual yet still telling a connected story as elements from the fourth movement revisit those of the second before the winds, strings and brass of the fifth and final movement move us from delicate harmonies to again pent up energy that is just waiting to be released.
It takes a special talent to bring a work like this to life and to capture all of the emotions and colours that it offers, and Nicola Benedetti is such a talent, musically both soaring above and when required interweaving with the RSNO orchestra but always captivating her audience tonight with what was a very special performance.
The Second half of tonight’s programme of music was devoted to another very special work, Dimitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No 5 (1937). For some reason I so often associate Shostakovich with pushing the boundaries of music and what his contemporary audiences would expect to hear from an orchestra, and although these elements are still here in parts, this is often in part a very to be expected Russian work of its period.
Shostakovich Symphony No 5 is always an enigma to me as although it is a work of amazing creativity, you always get the feeling that all is not what is pretends to be on the surface and that Shostakovich is playing with us, or to be more precise one person in particular when he composed it.
That one person in particular is Joseph Stalin, feared and ruthless dictator of the Russia and its people. Stalin had very narrow views on what he considered music, and in particular Russian music should sound like and when Stalin’s newspaper condemned the composer’s earlier opera “Lady Macbeth” as being a “muddle instead of music”, such displeasure from Stalin, and the personal consequences that could ensure from that, were clearly not wanted for a second time.
On the surface this work is in the best traditions of the great romantic Russian composers, but also it is full of the pomp and swaggering sounds of a pretentious military and those in power. Is Shostakovich making more than a few attacks on the established order in this work, but in doing so knowing that he is relatively safe as the interpretation of music is so personal and subjective.
Fortunately for us all today, we can listen to this work without the restrictions of political ideologies restraining us and see it for what it truly is, a remarkable work of beauty, passion and power that is constantly moving and changing throughout its long performance time (46 minutes approx.)
One unusual choice that Shostakovich makes here is the use of six double bass and when you hear them performed all in unison their combined sound is almost an elemental one.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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